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Pistorius hospitalised after fall in prison

South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was freed from prison last October after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter. PHOTO/AFP.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Aug 7 – Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has returned to his prison cell in South Africa’s capital after being treated at hospital for injuries sustained in a fall, prison officials told AFP Sunday.

“He had to be detained Saturday afternoon at the hospital after falling off his bed,” prison services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said.

“He’s back in our care now,” Nxumalo said.

He added that the double-amputee Paralympian was again in the medical wing of the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria where he has been serving out his six-year sentence due to his handicap.

According to the South African weekly City Press, citing another inmate at the prison, Pistorius had to go to hospital after intentionally slitting his wrists.

Pistorius was convicted of shooting to death Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Pistorius, who pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014, has always denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he was trying to protect her.

After first being found guilty of culpable homicide, an appeals court upgraded his conviction to murder in December last year.

Pistorius, 29, previously a role model for disabled people worldwide, is eligible for conditional release in 2019 after serving half his prison term.

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